Evelyn Scott (poet)
by George J. Dance Evelyn Scott (January 17, 1893 - August 3, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright.Evelyn Scott, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Web, July 29, 2015. Life Scott was born Elsie Dunn in Clarksville, Tennessee, the only child of Maude (Thomas) and Seely Dunn. She attended the Sophie Newcombe Preparatory School and then became the youngest girl student to enroll at Tulane University. In 1913, aged 20, she met Frederick Creighton Wellman, dean of Tulane's School of Tropical Medicine. Wellman, who was 20 years older than Dunn and a divorce with 4 children from a previous marriage, asked her to accmpany him on a trip to Brazil. The couple left secretly for Brazil in December 1913, changing their names at the time to pretect their identity: Wellman became Cyril Kay Scott, while Dunn changed her name to Evelyn Scott. to protect their secrecy. In February 1914 they arrived in Brazil, where Evelyn Scott gave birth to their 1st child, Creighton Scott. They remained in Brazil for 6 years, experiencing hardships and poverty, which Scott wrote about in her 1923 autobiography, Escapade. After returning to the United States the Scotts lived in New York City's Greenwich Village. Evelyn embraced the Bohemian life style, taking lovers such as Waldo Frank and William Carlos Williams. She had had poems published in the U.S. while in Brazil; in 1920, she published her debut collection, followed by a novel trilogy completed in 1925, and a 2nd, historical trilogy, Migrations, completed in 1931. In 1925 she began a relationship with English writer John Metcalfe that was to last until her death. In March of 1928 Cyril Scott divorced her in Juarez, Mexico, in 1928. Metcalfe and Evelyn Scott were legally married in in 1930. In a 1933 autobiographical novel, Eve Gay, Evelyn wrote about her youth and her involvement with Cyril Kay Scott and the artist Owen Merton. In 1937 came a second volume of autobiography, Background in Tennessee, and a further novel. She published two further novels, as well as four children's books, a play, numerous short stories, essays, and reviews, but did not publish after 1941. Metcalfe was drafted into the Royal Air Force during World War II as a pilot trainer. Scott joined him in England in 1944, and was not to return to the U.S. until 1953. She found it difficult to interest publishers in her work at such a distance and, along with her growing mental instability, poverty and illness took its toll. She suffered from heart trouble and lung cancer and passed away 10 years later. Writing A modernist and experimental writer, Scott "was a significant literary figure in the 1920s and 1930s, but she eventually sank into critical oblivion." Publications Poetry *''Precipitations. New York: Nicholas L. Brown, 1920. *''The Winter Alone. . New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930. *''Collected Poems'' (edited by Caroline C. Maun). Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, University of Maine, 2005. Novels *[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42534 The Narrow House]. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1921; London: Duckworth, 1921; New York: Arno Press, 1977. *[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42533 Narcissus]. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1922; New York: Arno Press, 1977. *''The Golden Door''. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1925. *''Migrations: An arabesque in histories''. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1927; London: Duckworth, 1927. *''The Wave''. New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929; London: Cape, 1929. *''Blue Rum'' (as "E. Souza"). New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930; London: Cape, 1930. *''A Calendar of Sin: American melodramas'' (2 volumes), New York: Smith & Haas, 1931. *''Eva Gay: A romantic novel'' (autobiographical novel). New York: Smith & Haas, 1933; London: Lovat Dickson, 1934. *''Breathe Upon These Slain''. New York: Smith & Haas, 1934; London: Lovat Dickson, 1934. *''Bread and a Sword''. New York: Scribner, 1937. *''The Shadow of the Hawk''. New York: Scribner, 1941. Short fiction *''Ideals: A book of farce and comedy''. New York: A. & C. Boni, 1927. Non-fiction *''Escapade'' (memoir). New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923. *''Background in Tennessee'' (autobiography). New York: R.M. McBride, 1937; (facsimile edition), Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1980. *''On William Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury'.'' New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929. Juvenile *''The Fourteen Bears: Summer and winter'' (illustrated by Virginia Parsons). New York: Golden Books, 1973. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Evelyn Scott, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 30, 2015. See also * List of U.S. poets References Fonds *Evelyn Scott at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Notes External links ;Poems *Scott in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Twenty-four Hours," "The Storm," "Rainy Season," "The Year," "Tropical Flowers," "Mail on the Ranch," "The City at Midnight," "Ship Masts," "The Silly Ewe," "Conservatism," "The Vampire Bat," "Fear," "Little Pigs" *Evelyn Scott at PoemHunter (10 poems) *Poems by Evelyn Scott at Black Cat Poems (50 poems) ;Books * *Works by Evelyn Scott at the Online Books Page *Evelyn Scott at Amazon.com ;About *Tennessee's Prodigal Daughter: Evelyn Scott *Evelyn Scott at 64 Parishes *"The Odyssey of Elsie Dunn" at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville *[http://www.carolinemaun.com/collpoems.html review of The Collected Poems of Evelyn Scott] Category:American novelists Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:Female authors who wrote under male or gender-neutral pseudonyms Category:1893 births Category:1963 deaths Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:20th-century novelists Category:American poets Category:American women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets